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AN ADDRESS 



IN m:eiviory 



Ulysses S. Grant, 



E. B. Sherman, LL.D, 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



V 



i) 



AN ADDRESS 



IN MEMORY 



Ulysses S. Grant 



E. B. Sherman. LL.D. 

(Late 2d Lleut. Co. C, yth Vt. Infaniky, .also l.ate Lieut. Col. and 
JudctE Advocate, 1st Beigade, I. N. G.) 



Delivered at Waukegan, III., Augusts, 1885; also pronounced at Pullman, III., 

August ;>, 1885; and before Ulysses S. Grant Post, G. A. R., 

AT Chicago, August ii, 1885. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 






L U) 



Ulysses S. $rant. 



Wit?)^ ALL the annals of the past there can be found 
kJ^ no record oi a scene more impressive, more touch- 
^<i0 ing-, than that which this day has witnessed. To-day 
'^' 'f the nation has rehictantly consigned to the tomb all 

I that remains of its illustrious son, Ulysses S. Grant. 

^ Through the streets of a thousand cities and vil- 
lages, draped with emblems of woe, pass funeral corteges 
with solemn and measured tread, clad with the common 
insignia of mourning, and touched with a common sorrow, 
while the mournful cadences of solemn dirges stir the 
sensibilities of every heart ; a thousand flags floating at 
half mast in the breeze, symbolize the nation's loss and 
proclaim the nation's grief; a thousand orators pay 
eloquent and loving tributes of respect and affection to 
the memory of the departed hero, and a common senti- 
ment of sympathy and sorrow touches and thrills the 
hearts of fifty millions of people. 

Nay, more ; the whole civilized world joins in paying 
honor to the illustrious dead. Wherever human hearts 
beat responsive to heroic deeds, there his name is held in 
reverent and affectionate regard. When he passed away 
from earth, America's pale and quivering lips whispered 
the sad tidings in the ear of every continent, and return- 
ino- messaoes of condolence were flashed beneath all 



seas. Never was there a more devoted and ardent pat- 
riot, never one more loyal to his country, to its govern- 
ment and its institutions, never one prouder of his her- 
itage as an American citizen, yet in name and fame and 
character, he belongs not to the nation but to the world. 

Mankind has been bereaved, and from the brother- 
hood of noble souls, one of the greatest has passed 
away. In Westminster Abbey, where repose England's 
illustrious dead, many of England's most illustrious living 
gathered in honor of the memory of one of America's 
greatest sons, and one of England's most eloquent schol- 
ars, orators and divines wreathed for his brow a chaplet 
of glory and beauty, and paid to his memory a loving 
and tender tribute. Eloquent words of eulogy stirred 
the air where sleep in solemn silence ten centuries of 
sccptered kings, and echoing back from the fretted roofs 
died away in the distant aisles where reposes the dust of 
Albion's inuuortal bards, renowned statesmen and mighty 
warriors. Nor was such homage in such a presence 
undeserved, for where, in all that most magnificent of 
mausoleums sleeps there one among the titled or the 
untitled dead whose peer he is not. 

In tlie brief pe^riod allotted me I shall not attempt to 
sketch the life and public services or analyze the charac- 
ter of (ieneral (irant ; nor is this necessary. Eor nearly 
twenty-five years he has stood before the American 
people, one of the central figures in the conspicuous 
group of warriors and statesmen who have made events 
and created history. On every page of this history his 
deeds are emblazoned in letters of living light. 

W^hen the bloody hand of treason sought to thrust a 
dagger to the nation's h(;art ; when inspired and thrilled 



by patriotic purpose the loyal millions rose in their ma- 
jesty, and solemnly swore that the emblem of the nation's 
honor should forever float over a free and united coun- 
try ; then Illinois gave to the nation it's greatest states- 
man, the immortal Lincoln, to preside over its councils, 
to bear upon his strong shoulders the burden of its mis- 
fortunes, and to suffer in his sensitive soul the lono- 
anguish of its sad Gethsemane ; it gave to the nation, 
also, her greatest soldier, the immortal Grant, who, at 
Belmont, and Donelson, and Shiloh, and Vicksburg, and 
Chattanooga, and through the Wilderness, led her armies 
to suprcmest victorw Obscure and unknown, but the 
conscious possessor of great qualities, in four short years, 
by sheer merit, he forced his way from obscurity to the 
highest pinnacle of human greatness. The secret of his 
power has never been' disclosed. Genius is a law to 
itself, and the workings of this law can be known only to 
its possessor. It is even doubtful whether the methods 
it employs to accomplish its magnificent results rise so 
lar into the domain of consciousness that they become 
clearly visible to him who employs them. In this form 
of greatness, which, because we cannot comprehend or 
describe it otherwise, we term genius, a subtle and un- 
erring intuition guides the soul. The processes of 
reason may be comprehended and analyzed, and the 
path from premises to conclusion clearly understood and 
unerringly traced. The illumination of genius is as in- 
stantaneous as the electric flash. Sometimes this power 
is manifested by a concentration of immense vital ener- 
gies in a single direction ; sometimes by a rare equipoise 
of strong mental forces, producing extraordinary results 
without apparent effort. Such was the genius of General 



Grant, the genius of an evenly developed, well balanced, 
finely poised, well disciplined mind, all of whose powers 
responded instandy and harmoniously to the mandates 
of his imperious will, roused and stimulated by the stern 
behest of dut\'. 

It is easy to say of General Grant that as a com- 
mander he possessed a rare faculty of organization ; that 
his plans were sagacious, comprehensive, carefully con- 
sidered and steadily pursued; that he possessed an 
indomitable will, intlexible courage, extraordinary self- 
reliance and tenacit)- of purpose, and an unwaverino- con- 
fidence in his ultimate success ; that he commanded 
greater armies and won more magnificent victories than 
any other military leader of the age ; |;hat he was patient 
under undeserved censure, and cohsdTous of the rectitude 
of his purpose, was willing to bear unjust suspicion and 
wait tor his vindication till the calm and enlightened 
judgment of the people should recognize and applaud 
his motives and glory in his achievements ; diat he pos- 
sessed the confidence of his corps and division com- 
manders in a marvelous degree ; that he was the soul of 
honor, generous to his brother soldiers, devoid of any 
trace ot jealousy towards his rivals, incapable of mean- 
ness or injustice, and inspired by a lofty patriotism and an 
unfaltering devotion to his country ; that he was brave, 
but not reckless or cruel ; magnanimous, but not weak ; 
yieldincT, but not vacillating or wavering; ambitious, but 
without a trace of personal vanity ; stern and inflexible, 
but with a heart as tender and comjiassionate as that of 
a woman. All this is true, but it is not all of the truth. 
We are yet too near him to comi)rehend his greatness in 
all its majestic proportions. Looking through the soft- 



cning- haze of time, and across the extending plain of 
intervening' years, some grand, manly soul will study and 
comprehend his character, and in fitting words will reveal 
it to mankind in all its sublime beaut3^ 

A few years since, when it was fashionable among 
certain excellent people to spend their leisure hours in 
casting aspersions and calumnies upon ex President 
Grant — let us hope that they have all long since repented 
in sackcloth and ashes — I was riding southward from 
Denver with a well-meanintr but narrow-minded grentle- 
man, who had imbibed bitter prejudices against Gen- 
eral Grant, and persisted, much to my discomfort, 
and not a little to my disgust, in favoring me with not 
over-intelligent criticisms u|X)n his military career, his 
civil administration' o/^ the government, and his character 
and conduct as a public man. It was in vain that I 
sought to change the theme of conversation, and 
annoyance deepened into vexation as he proceeded. I 
glanced out of the window towards the west. Through 
the transparent atmosphere, crowned with the soft rad- 
iance of the declinincj sun, towered toward the skies the 
majestic outlines of Pike's Peak. 

" Look," said I, "at the Peak to-day ! What a majes- 
tic outline! What a sublime presence ! What resplen- 
dent beauty ! How the lofty peaks around him are 
dwarfed by his superior greatness ! The slowly set- 
tinor sun seems to linoer in conscious admiration and 
touches his proud head with a tender halo ! " 

" It is, indeed, a magnificent spectacle," he replied, 
worthy of the muse of another Coleridge, worthy the 
brush and colorino- of a crreater than Bierstadt." 

" But have you ever ascended the Peak ?" said I. 



" No," he replied, " I started once, but the path was 
rough antl somewhat difficult. A thousand ugly bould- 
ers impeded my steps, the hot sun poured down 
through the rare atmosphere, and I found no charms to 
entice me farther upward." 

" Let us," said I, "learn a lesson from your exper- 
ience; we sometimes stand too near greatness to un- 
derstand or appreciate it. Our dull vision perceives 
only the litde personal peculiarities, the foibles, and per- 
haps faults of character, and these so absorb our atten- 
tion that we fail to perceive the greater and nobler 
qualides which should so command our profound 
admiration and respect, that litde eccentricities would 
be wholly unperceived or instandy forgotten. 

Thus it is with the great man upon whose character 
and services you cast such undeserved aspersions. 
You are too near him. Wait but a few years till the 
mellowing, misty haze of distance conceals the trifling 
faults which now distress you so gready. Then across 
the vista of years, the name and fame and character of 
Ulysses S. Grant shall rise toward heaven in majestic 
splendor, the highest and grandest among that glorious 
o-alaxv of heroes, warriors and statesmen who saved 
the Country's life, and magnanimously forgave the 
foe whose fratricidal hand was red with patriotic 
blood. Around him will stand, in glad compan- 
ionship, Sherman, antl Sheridan, and Thomas, and 
Logan, and b'arragut, and Sumner, and Stevens, and 
Stanton, and Chandler, and Trumbull, and Doolitde, 
and other giants who in field or forum or senate 
chamber struck heavy blows for freedom and father- 
land, but every one will raise toward him their uncov- 



ered heads in revercMit admiration and acknowledo-ment 
of his superior greatness. 

' As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form 
' Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm, 
' Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
' Eternal sunshine settles on its head.' 

In the case of most of the great men whose forms 
are now perceived above the horizon of the past, it has 
required hundreds of years so to hide their faults and 
pour forgetfulness over their deeds, as to leave com- 
paratively untarnished their grand outlines ; but with 
our Grant, it will be quite different. So much is he one 
of us, the people, that even before his death all honest 
lips like yours will be; mute, or only part to utter his 
praise ; and when immortality shall claim him as her 
own, the whole civilized world will stand with uncovered 
brow and bated breath, bending in reverent homage at 
his open tomb." 

My friend, though misguided, was an honest and pa- 
triotic man, and something I had uttered touched his 
heart and unsealed its fountains. He was silent for a 
few moments, and then said, in a subdued voice and 
moistened eye : 

" I have been wrong. Never again will I speak bit- 
terly or disrespectfully of one to whom the country and 
all its loyal sons owe so great a debt of gratitude. 
General Grant has made mistakes, as who has not, but 
now I see that they are only as shining sands upon the 
beach, while his great character and resplendent services 
to his country and the world, are like the unfathomable 
ocean that stretches beyond the horizon." 

Universally honored and revered while in health and 



prosperity, he came to be as universally beloved when 
rude misfortune's shadow fell across his pathway, and 
with unfaltering step and stout heart he approached the 
dark valley of the shadow of death. He fell a victim of 
the conscienceless and criminal cupidity of those w^ho 
basely sought to barter his good name for gold. Un- 
suspecting and simple-hearted as a child, he put his con- 
fidence in unprincipled scoundrels, who betrayed and 
financially ruined him. Now, indeed, the iron entered his 
soul. To be subjected to the suspicion of dishonesty was 
more than he could bear. That he, who for four years 
had bravely borne the terrible responsibility of his 
country's weal or woe ; who had for eight years been its 
chief magistrate'; who had, as its most honored citizen 
been received with sincere respect by the greatest nations 
of the w^orld ; that he should have been associated in 
business with a common swindler and vulgar thief— this 
broke his great heart. Strong to bear grief and mis- 
fortune, this anguish was too great ; the poisoned shaft 
l)ierced his sensitive soul and rankled till death freed his 
chastened spirit from its shattered tabernacle. Yet no 
sane man of all the millions of his countrynien tloubts 
his absolute integrity. 

Lincoln fell by Booth's bullet ; Ciarfield perished by 
Guitcau's guilt-stained hand ; Grant died too soon, cut 
oft" by the shameless wickedness of Ward. Hut what a 
sublime spectacle ! With what magnificent courage he 
met the fell destroyer ! With w^hat infinite patience he 
endured the acutest anguish ! C^reat as he was in life, he 
was greater still in death. With fortitude which could 
not be shaken ; with calmness which could not be ruffled; 
with cheerfid confidence in the goodness and mere)' of 



the Great Fatlier ; with unshaken faith in the immortal 

hfe beyond ; grieving only for the dear ones he left behind, 

with measured tread he stepped slowly down into the 

waters of the dark river, and the misty curtain of eternity 

veiled him from our vision forever, while on the radiant 

heights beyond, with folded pinions, a shining- band of 

seraphs watched and waited for his approach, chanting- 

the triumphant pcean of victory — 

" Oh ! death, where is thy sting ! 
" Oh ! grave, where is thy victory ! " 

To-day the nation has followed to his last resting- 
place her first citizen, her greatest soldier. The nation 
mourns. The civilized world joins in respectful homage 
to his memory. But to those who knew him as a man ; 
to those who were honored by his friendship, there comes 
a deep sense of personal bereavement, and personal 
grief And to you, my comrades, who followed him 
through the terrible baptism of blood, by which our 
nation was consecrated to a better life, and which sealed 
her redemption from the sin of slavery, and expiated her 
ancient crimes against freedom and equal rights, to you, 
fellow soldiers, wdiat can I say that your own hearts have 
not already felt. The bond which unites the hearts of 
soldiers, is peculiarly sacred. They are bound together 
by a chain whose links were forged and welded in the 
fires of battle, amid the thunder of cannon, the shrill 
shrieks of shell, the whistling of bullets, and the clash of 
ensanguined sabres ; tempered by the life-blood of com- 
rades ebbing away where no gentle hand coulci wipe 
away the damp dews of death ; consecrated by the tears 
of mothers who gave their sons a priceless offering on 
the shrine of patriotic devotion, of wives whose loved 



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ones came back no more fon^vcr, of little children who 
never again could know a father's anxious care or a 
father's tender love ; and of such a chain, wdiile life shall 
last, no link can ever be broken; comrades we are, and 
comrades we shall be till our hearts, still and cold, no 

longer 

"* * like mufflL'd drums are beating 

Funeral marches to the grave." 

While Others mourn our comrade's loss, we must 
needs weep. If others love him much, we love him more 
tenderly still. If others honor, we revere. In " Fra- 
ternity, Charity and Loyalty," we leave him gendy, tt-n- 
derly in his final resting place. 

Who can estimate the value of such a life ; the lesson 
of such a death j* Who can measure the potency of a 
character so admirable? Who shall trace the widening, 
circling waves of influence emanating from a fame so 
resplendent? Ideas fructify die mind, but ideals touch 
the heart and regenerate die soul. Goodness and truth 
and piety abstracdy considered, are beautiful and de- 
sirable, but when they become incarnate in a living, 
loving mother, or innocent child, or venerable saint, they 
move the heart and mold the soul into their own divine 
likeness. Patriotism and honor and public virtue are 
but excellent words, but when the noble qualities of 
which they are but feeble exponents, shine forth in 
luminous effidgence, in the character of a Lincoln or a 
Cirant, then, indeed, patriotism and honor and public 
virtue are perceived in all their native majesty and loveli- 
ness. To how^ many a young man, struggling with cruel 
adversity, and sorely tempted to descend from the shin- 
ing heights of personal honor and integrity to the sham- 



II 



bles where justice is crucified, and impious hands cast 
lots for her seamless garments, will the illustrious ex- 
ample of Ulysses S. Grant be an inspiration to good, and 
a salvation from sin and shame. 

His marvelous achievements will be forever emblazoned 
on the pages of history, and inspired bard and eloquent, 
impassioned orator w^ill thrill the hearts of millions yet 
unborn, as they pronounce the illustrious name of Grant, 
and portray in fitting words the matchless splendor of 
his fame ! The grand diapason of reverent and loving 
admiration which encircles the world to-day, will echo 
and re-echo down the corridors of coming ages, " till the 
last syllable of recorded time." In commemoration of 
his heroic deeds massive monuments will rise on which 
will be chiseled his name : 

" One of the (ew, the immortal na-mes, 
That were not born to die." 

Rise, proud monuments, in majestic grandeur, till your 
summits pierce the clouds, and kiss the over-archino- 
vault of heaven! With mute but moving eloquence 
proclaim to coming generations the splendor of his 
character and the matchless glory of his renown ! 
Declare to them the magnificent example of his life, 
the impressive lesson of his death ! Reveal to wonder- 
ing eyes his massive form, and the striking lineaments 
of the Great Commander's face ! 

And, yet, his proudest and most enduring monument 
will be The Nation, wdiose gallant armies he led to such 
resplendent victory ; whose existence his genius and 
valor helped to save; whose haughty enemies he twice 
conquered : in war, by the resistless might of his legions ; 
in peace, by his unexampled magnanimity to a fallen foe. 



12 



By the unanimous verdict of mankind the great 
Father of his country was accorded a sohtary place on 
the very pinnacle of human greatness. Among the 
thousand of America's heroes and warriors and states- 
men none was found w^orthy to stand beside him. 

Half a century later, by the same consenting voice, 
the Savior of his country was accorded a place of equal 
dignity by his side. 

To-day, beside those two majestic forms there stands a 
third ! It is the hero whose spirit winged its upward 
flight from Mount McGregor's consecrated ground ; 
it is the familiar form of him we loved so well — the Great 
Commander. 

And now abide these three : Washington, and Lin- 
coln, and Grant ; the Trinity of America's heroes, now 
and forever complete. 



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